Stanford Football Has All the Makings to Make a Bowl Game in 2025

2025 is a massive season for the Stanford Cardinal football program. In what could prove to be their biggest test of grit and resilience in the entire history of the program, the Cardinal enter the new season with a lot of questions, including what to do at head coach. Firing Troy Taylor earlier this year in favor of interim coach, Frank Reich, the Cardinal are officially in a new era.

But a new era also comes with a fair amount of uncertainty that could plague the team all year long. Facing a massive roster exodus that included losing pretty much every wide receiver from 2024, expectations for the Cardinal are not very favorable entering the fall. In fact, some analysts even have the Cardinal finishing with a worse record than they've had in recent seasons.

While nobody is high on Stanford this season, the Cardinal could take advantage of that and defy the odds in a big way. Reich, who only signed a one-year deal, has never coached college before but as an NFL coach, not only developed a reputation for being an offensive guru--but he is also known for how well he can develop players. With the Cardinal having a lot of young players, development is of utter importance.

So if Reich is able to develop the current roster the way he's shown he can in the past, does this team have what it takes to make a bowl game? Potentially, yes.

While there are a lot of holes still on the roster, one position that appears to be in good shape heading into training camp is quarterback. Sophomore Elijah Brown, a former four-star prospect, is the current frontrunner to take over the full-time job, but the Cardinal also added former UCF quarterback, Dylan Rizk, and former Oregon State quarterback, Ben Gulbranson, to the mix.

Each one of those guys, while limited last season, have shown flashes of greatness and could look to take that next step forward this season.

But quarterback is not the only position that the Cardinal invested in heavily. Defensively, the Cardinal added a lot of new faces to bolster a struggling unit from last season, adding big names such as linebacker Hunter Barth from Cal and defensive back Sam Neely from Wake Forest.

The biggest factor to consider about Stanford's roster is the lack of true starter minutes. Most of the guys that the Cardinal picked up in the portal are all guys that either fell out of favor or did not really get the chance to start at their previous schools.

So it is hard to truly assess how good this year's roster is without seeing those guys play first. But talent wise, the Cardinal went all-in and enter this season with more depth at key spots.

Stanford has not made a bowl game since 2018 and while this year's team seems like a longshot in most cases, they have all the makings of being a surprise team. Considering the amount of changes that occurred on the coaching staff, the Cardinal only lost a small number of players to the transfer portal after the fact, with the rest of the team not only staying, but committed to rallying together.

If the Cardinal are able to put that strong chemistry to good use and play a good, physical brand of football, good things could happen on The Farm this season.